The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There Launches Today!

October 2, 2012

You never know what’s coming next in Fell Beneath, and the most roundabout and whimsical turns always come back around to the main story and its payoff…As masterful as the first novel.

–Cory Doctorow

OMG Happy Book Birthday The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There!

Fairyland is a grown up series, officially. It has a pretty purple baby sibling and I’m just hoping, with fingers and thumbs crossed, that it touches you all the same way.

It’s still nearly impossible for me to believe that the dashed-off motif in Palimpsest has become this enormous thing, a five book series, illustrated and gorgeous and a few people even love it. And now it has the sequel–the one I intended to write as soon as I put the last sentence on Circumnavigated. The one about September’s shadow.

This would never have happened without those who were so supportive, who gave their energy to the book, who told me not to give up. That means my editor and team at Feiwel and Friends, but it also means everyone who read Fairyland when it was online and thought it was important. Thank you so much. I’ve never known anything like the life of this series. The internet, every once in awhile, can be magic.

This is only the beginning of the journey. Fairyland is a series, and we will all get to go back quite soon in the third book. But for today, it’s beginning again, and I wish you all shadows and dodos and Revels as we set off for fairy shores once more.

Which is a nice way of saying ZOMG FAIRYLAND IS OUT HOLY CATS.

Thank you to everyone–simply, everyone who has been there, who supported the project, who donated, who read along, who pre-ordered, who bought the first book and told me how it made them feel, who talked about it online. Thank you to my tribe. To parents and librarians and teachers. And to my publishers who have been a dream of support and love. There are not enough thanks in the world.

And here’s everything you need to know about The Girl Who Fell Beneath!

September has longed to return to Fairyland after her first adventure there. And when she finally does, she learns that its inhabitants have been losing their shadows—and their magic—to the world of Fairyland Below. This underworld has a new ruler: Halloween, the Hollow Queen, who is September’s shadow. And Halloween does not want to give Fairyland’s shadows back.

Fans of Valente’s bestselling, first Fairyland book will revel in the lush setting, characters, and language of September’s journey, all brought to life by fine artist Ana Juan. Readers will also welcome back good friends Ell, the Wyverary, and the boy Saturday. But in Fairyland Below, even the best of friends aren’t always what they seem. . . .

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There is available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, your local independent bookseller, and basically anywhere you care to look for books. You should be able to get it on the ground at all the big booksellers, too. It’s available on the Kindle, the Nook, the iPad, and most other electronic formats.

AND GET THIS. The audiobook? Is read by none other than s00j! S.J. Tucker lent her astonishing acting talents to the story–and I cannot think of anyone better to read to you in the night than she. You want to hear this, I promise.

If you want your copy signed, mail it to me with the cost of return postage and I will sign it for you. Email me for my address if you don’t already know it. Or find me on the tour at any one of the readings and conventions I’ll be doing in 2012. There are a lot.

I know there are some of you who just can’t afford it, but genuinely want to read it. If you really, really honestly can’t afford it, I have a few spare copies and I’ll consider trades. Good old bartering system.

How You Can Help (if, you know, you’re inclined to do things like helping out authors. And if you like the book.)

Buy the book. Obviously, this is the best way to support the book–and ensure that there will be many more in the series. Buying a copy during the first week and even doing so today is a huge slice of awesome–it’s the most important week in a book’s life. It’s when the strange math of the NYT list can inexplicably blow your way, as it did with the first book. If you want to do me a solid, buy it this week. I really appreciate it.

Amazon (Kindle, Audiobook)
Barnes and Noble
iBooks
Powell’s

Come to my readings in the next month. Come the show, be part of the tribe. I’m in Denver this week, and the first reading, and therefore launch party, is at The Boulder Bookstore tonight at 6:30 pm. Please come if you’re in the area! All my other tour dates are here.

Review it. On your blog, or elsewhere if you work for a review site or a magazine. I can send a PDF if you haven’t gotten the book from other sources. Physical ARCs are also available. I’d like to hold review copies for people who review for venues, however.

Put up a review on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Totally easy and a nice way to say what you thought even if you don’t review professionally. Don’t be shy!

Ask your local booksellers to carry it, if they don’t already. This is important, as it is still the place where a whole lot of people buy books, and the brick and mortar ordering system determines a lot of a book’s success.

Check it out from your local library. If they don’t have it, request it. This can result in both you reading the book for free, and increased library orders, which are awesome. Also, libraries: we need them, yo.

Link to the book in your journals/Twitter/Facebook/websites–Spread the word! And if you know kids who might like it–tell them. Please do get the word out, if you can. All books need help to get in front of readers’ eyeballs. If you want me to cross-link to any of your work in exchange, let me know.

If you link to Fairyland in your journals, blogs, Twitter, or Facebooks any time in the next week, leave a comment with the link in THIS POST and I will enter you in a drawing to win a Fairyland prize package! You can use OpenID if you don’t have an LJ account.

The prize box contains:

A complete set of all my novels and standalone novellas
A box of local Maine chocolates
A bottle of Maine blueberry mead
My reading copy of Fairyland 2 at the end of the tour–with all my notes, bookmarks, and a few fun things from the journey tucked in.

My heart is very full today. I hope I can hug as many of you as I can on the tour. Magic happens, for reals, and I thank you all for helping to make this spell do its work.

Comments Closed

13 thoughts on “The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There Launches Today!”

  1. An excessive amount of my free time, since I was old enough to read, has been spent with my nose in a book. Reading has been what I love to do.
    The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making takes so many ideas that I care deeply about and twirls them into a electric new fairy tale.
    It is my favorite book.
    Here’s a link to my facebook page, where there’s a Barnes and Noble link to The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland And Led The Revels There (as well as an ecstatic blurb about it from myself :)
    Thank you for writing these books.
    Laura
    https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=23426991

  2. hmm…don’t know the link can be seen by public audience on facebook. Well here’s a copy and paste anywho:

    Laura Carpenter shared a link.
    22 minutes ago
    YOU GUYS. Have you ever been so giddy to read a book you can barely open it you’re so excited? I’ve made it through chapter 1 so far. There have been numerous page closure as I stare goofily into space, reveling in how amazing this book is.
    Check this sequel out, people. You know I don’t throw my valuable book endorsements around lightly ;)
    **I have reached the pinnacle of my bookish nerdyness. So very happeh :)

    The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
    http://www.barnesandnoble.com
    Available in: NOOK Book (eBook), Hardcover, Audiobook, Other Format. September has longed to return to Fairyland after her first adventure there. And when she finally does, she learns that its inhabitants have been losing their shadows—and their magic—to th
    Like · · Share

  4. Had pre-ordered on B&N and (wonderful surprise!) found it already downloaded and ready to read this morning when I checked in on the newspaper. Well, the news can wait…..September’s adventures come first – now, will cloud rowing be a new Olympic sport? Best wishes for the continued success of your series! Liked on FB – https://www.facebook.com/katie.doan.921?ref=tn_tnmn

    Maine chocolates…Needhams?

  5. I don’t have anywhere to post a review… but just wanted to say that I loved TGWCFIASOHOM and had no idea this follow-up book was on its way! I just happened to be looking you up today to find out more about your grown-up fiction and discovered TGWFBFALTRT and could not BE any more excited! I’m sorry I missed its official bday but I’m off to buy it now. : )

  6. I am beyond thrilled about your new book! I received it this week for my birthday and shall be starting it today once I find a cup of tea and a quiet corner :) I would absolutely love to get my book signed – or even just a signed bookplate to place in my book (I actually have blank ones) – but I couldn’t locate your email address. If you could provide me with that and/or your mailing address, I will send you a request. Thank you for sharing your talent with the world – you are a treasure!!!
    Warmly, Amy Elaine Stoll (Madison, WI)

  7. I discovered you as a writer through the first Fairyland novel – a book with such a title can’t be bad, I thought. I didn’t expect to be so overwhelmed. You have become one of my favorite writers and I hope you write many, many more books.

    I am spreading the word about Fairyland in the German reading community. My raving review about the first book can be found here:
    http://sffbookreview.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/catherynne-m-valente-the-girl-who-circumnavigated-fairyland-in-a-ship-of-her-own-making/

    Crazy as it sounds, I bought your book twice. Once as an ebook and then as a hardcover, because it’s so beautiful and so pretty to look at (and those illustrations, wow!). A box with all of your books and signed stuff… just the thought makes me sigh with yearning.

    I wish you all the best and will soon post a review of “The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland…”

      • This is getting ridiculous. I don’t actually expect to win this competition (though I’ve been telling my boyfriend about it non-stop) and I’m not even sure if you’d send a box this big to far-away Austria, but I’m now reading the second Fairyland book and it deserves to be hyped, either way. I’ve tweeted about it on @sffbookreview and I’ll probably put up a review today or tomorrow on sffbookreview.wordpress.com

        I sincerely hope you win all the prizes with this book. I’m enjoying it even more than the first one (that makes it a 10/10 so far!)

  8. I didn’t even know this was coming but I’m kind of glad I was surprised. I was looking through SFSignal and clicked onto their report of the top 10 books for October and, lo and behold, saw Fairyland 2 listed and I admit that I might have gotten a little teary. When I saw it was already out, I about broke my finger trying to click on the “BUY NOW” button. I’ve been forcing friends and relatives to listen to how amazing the first was, and now they get to hear about the second, too. XD Despite being swamped with work, I read it in two days. It was exactly what I needed. Thank you so much.

    http://www.facebook.com/tara.elam I linked it here, and am also telling everyone and their sister about it.

  10. What a great reading at Changing Hands in Tempe this afternoon! Hearing the opening chapters read gave a fresh, intriguing taste of a Fairyland that has a deep kinship with the older traditions of faery with original, arresting images — especially hard to reach, given the cascades of much darker young adult material that seems to be so obligatory at the moment . . .